Babylon Sisters and Other Posthumans

by Paul Di Filippo

Paul Di Filippo is one of Science Fiction's finest short story writers, wild, witty, exuberantly imaginative; Babylon Sisters and Other Posthumans is a generous showcase of his strange, transformative, and powerful Hard SF visions. The fourteen stories collected here are glimpses into the most fantastic possibilities of human evolution-biological, social, and cultural. From a New York split into warring walled enclaves, to the destiny of our species as a strain of virus, to an Africa made over by nanotech messiahs, to a future Earth protected by half-alien angels, to wars of liberation from what we have always so tragically been: these are only some of the awe-inspiring transitions to be found in Babylon Sisters. Read here of rebellion by books against their librarian, of cosmic destiny remade by stellar lunatics, of disorienting ventures beyond the boundaries of the human; discover here the perverse and terrible dangers of the age of posthumanity.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Collections, Fiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Paul Di Filippo is the author of hundreds of short stories, some of which have been collected in these widely-praised collections: The Steampunk Trilogy, Ribofunk, Fractal Paisleys, Lost Pages, Little Doors, Strange Trades, Babylon Sisters, and his multiple-award-nominated novella, A Year in the Linear City. Another earlier collection, Destroy All Brains, was published by Pirate Writings, but is quite rare because of the extremely short print run (if you see one, buy it!).

The popularity of Di Filippo’s short stories sometimes distracts from the impact of his mindbending, utterly unclassifiable novels: Ciphers, Joe’s Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, and Spondulix. Paul’s offbeat sensibility, soulful characterizations, exquisite-yet-compact prose, and laugh-out-loud dialogue give his work a charmingly unique voice that is both compelling and addictive. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards.

Despite his dilatory ways, Paul affirms that the sequel to A Year in the Linear City, to be titled A Princess of the Linear Jungle, will get written in 2008. He has two books forthcoming from PS Publications: the collection entitled Harsh Oases and the novel titled Roadside Bodhisattva. His 2008 novel Cosmocopia is graced by Jim Woodring illustrations.

Paul lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[zxvasdf · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depth of Di Filippo's imagination and vision is amazing, considering the majority of these stories were published during the nineties, way before the world became the way it is now. These visions seem more cutting edge, relevant, even, with the modern perspective.

In a future echoing another of his short story collection masterpieces, Ribofunk, Babylon Sisters says, "You're worried about GMOs? Ha! It's the future, baby." A feat of the imagination, this set of quite possibly loosely connected stories extrapolates a vivid and transformative future.

Earth is invaded by unbeatable aliens, and humans transfigure themselves using the genomes of various species and the behavior patterns of viruses. A man learns how to sense gravity and is unburdened. Scabs are people who swoop in biological Chernobyls to steal and encode genetic secrets. An Africa is possessed by Maxwell's Demons, and the protagonist sets out to kill the man who let the genie out of the bottle.

Tomorrow has never been weirder, and, dare I say, beautiful.

[Petalbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird! Di Filippo is my new fave scifi author. (That's saying a lot.) :)

[Sara]

The reluctant book
master of wander over sea of book
the moon flower at the door home
no one sleep at spring of dove
fly over dove wings
book go with day road
stranger star talk and sleep
the alphapit of book grow with appil field
the bird sing the love buterfly song
how we go far from that light of fire
must talk of parphan of book
like wind collect parphan of jasmen
stole the frouit of futuer
fall with past love
the illness without book was bad dream
colect what far yr mind gother
the morning come with peace at heart

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Those were our heroic days. The world’s most advanced technicians, fighting for the planet’s environmental survival! Of course we completely failed, and the planet’s ecosystem totally collapsed. But at least we didn’t suck up to politicians.”

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun collection from Di Filippo, this one features a man who can see gravity and far future humans living as viruses inside vast alien hosts.